New Cornelia Open Pit Mining Lookout

Sometimes just called "The Pit", it was one of Arizona's major copper mines, and the state's first large "open pit" mine. It operated from around 1900 to 1983. Ajo in fact was a company town, and as the science of copper mining was perfected, the town boomed. John Campbell Greenway purchased the mine in 1911 and oversaw its greatest expansion. The Tucson, Cornelia and Gila Bend Railroad was established in 1915 to serve the mine and connect it with Tucson (see my earlier post about the railroad depot on the plaza). In 1921 Greenway sold the improved operation to Phelps Dodge, the largest copper company in the U.S.